Everything
by FemaleSpock
Summary: "Morality is the excuse that the weak use to justify their failures," Artegor stated, dismissively. "You have to be willing to do everything you need to do in order to win." AU, Artegor/Mei, hints of Sinedd/Mei and Aarch/Artegor. Warnings for violence, abuse of power and emotional manipulation.


Everything

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

**This fic was a request from Tijananazdravec who asked for an Artegor/Mei one-shot; I hope you enjoy!**

**Season 1 AU in which Mei joins the Shadows shortly before they go to Genesis Stadium. **

**Warnings for: violence, manipulation, abuse of power etc. **

"You know, I thought Sinedd was joking when he said that you were interested in switching teams, but here you are. I have to wonder exactly what he said to convince you." Artegor looked from Mei to Sinedd,

"He didn't convince me, I came because Aarch is holding me back." She rolled her eyes as she said it. "He won't let me be a striker."

Artegor surveyed her, seemingly unimpressed. "And what makes you think that I'll let you be on attack? I already have two perfectly good strikers and I have no reason to think that you'll do any better."

Mei crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Give me a chance and I'll show you."

"Is this really the best you could do?" Artegor looked right past her, addressing Sinedd who was slouching up against the back wall (pretending he had no interest in the matter). "If you were going to bring me a Snow Kid, why couldn't it have been Rocket?"

Sinedd shrugged. "He's stubborn. I guess it runs in the family."

A dark shadow passed over Artegor's face and he was silent for a moment – Mei thought she could even see a few inky tendrils start to form around him like a blanket. The feud between Aarch and Artegor was much discussed on the Holo-Tv but no-one seemed to know the exact details and Aarch certainly hadn't been forthcoming with information when asked by the team (he always seemed be keeping some secret or another).

"Rocket's too meek to even leave the Snow Kids," Mei interjected. She jutted out her chin, holding her head high. "I'll do much better."

"See that you do, there is no room for the weak here." He switched his attention casually back to his holo-computer. "Sinedd will see you to your new room."

* * *

"Why am I _still_ playing defence?" She looked up at the box where Artegor watched over the pitch, unable to actually see him, making his comments into a micro-phone that echoed like the voice of a distant god. "I might as well have just stayed with Aarch."

"Stop acting like a petulant child," Artegor's voice slithered down the ear-piece. "You'll be moved to attack if and when you prove that you deserve it."

"Ugh," she muttered. Shaking it off she got into position, steeling herself for the challenge (she'd throw it in his face how good she was).

She found herself having to rapidly adjust to the differences in the training programmes. Training on the Shadows' Archipelago didn't take place in the virtual reality of the holo-trainer and it showed.

Sinedd dribbled up to the goal with the ball, almost ready to take a shot. Acting purely on muscle memory, Mei slid in to tackle him, stealing the ball from under his feet and then – shove. She met the ground hard as she fell. She lay there for a moment, in the pure shock and confusion of it all.

"Get up," Artegor's voice hissed, snapping her back to reality. "Don't be so pathetic."

Mei dragged herself up, trying not to show any emotion on her face. Sinedd was smirking at her in a way that made her want to punch him for even daring to lay a finger on her. She'd lived this scene before of course but somehow she hadn't expected this from him now that they were teammates.

"Keep it up, Sinedd." Artegor just had to pour more salt on the wound. Mei wondered whether she would get a pat on the back if she shoved Sinedd right back (she was considering it semi-seriously anyway) but she just got back into position instead.

She found out from the rest of the training session that Sinedd's action hadn't just been a one off – the entire session was almost entirely dedicated to the team kicking each other and Mei was on the receiving end of much of it. Perhaps it was because she was new, perhaps because she couldn't use the Smog to blink out of the way of an attack, but either way she knew she was going to have bruises the next morning.

Artegor's comments also seemed designed to piss his players off; a far cry from the firm but undeniably encouraging words that Aarch used.

As Mei lay in her new bed that night, no room-mate to fight with here, she couldn't help but wonder whether she hadn't made a terrible mistake in coming here. But it was hopeless, she couldn't turn back, the Snow Kids would never accept her back.

She was just going to have to stick it out.

* * *

Mei dodged out of the way of Sinedd's oncoming attack; maybe he'd become predictable or maybe she just knew him too well but he rarely managed to touch her now (the others were trickier, less obvious than Sinedd was). She retained possession of the ball and sent it flying the other way.

Sinedd shot her a brief look of annoyance before disappearing after it in a puff of smoke to pursue the ball again.

"Mei!" yelled Artegor. "You shouldn't have just let him go."

"I stopped him, didn't I? What more do you want?" she shouted back, throwing her hands up in the air.

There was a brief moment of silence and then the sound of footsteps. The entire practice came to a standstill.

"He's coming down here," Sinedd said, his voice sounding even more choked than usual.

His teammates exchanged looks, communicating silently in a way that Mei was not yet privy to – but she could tell it wasn't good. Artegor had never, in her short time here, come down to actually speak to the players face to face.

The door flung open and Artegor strode through walking down the pitch, staring down his players as he went. They held their heads high – nothing less would gain his approval. He pushed past Sinedd and stood right in front of Mei.

She stood there too; hand on hip in the familiar pose of defiance even as she tried to stop herself from shaking. It was quite hard to stare someone wearing sunglasses down, she realised.

"The rest of you are dismissed," Artegor barked. "I think I need some time alone with our new recruit."

The grins her teammates shot her, as they left, were decidedly nasty. Sinedd even gave her a mocking wave before he turned on his heel and followed the rest of them along.

Finally Mei was left, standing there on that pitch which, whilst large, did not feel big enough for the both of them.

"Why are you here?" A simple question but Mei couldn't help but feel that every possible answer was a trap – she wasn't even sure what the truth was any more.

In the end she fell back on the answer she had given when she had first arrived there. "To be an attacker."

"An attacker." Artegor's voice was soft, sly. "And how, pray tell me, can you be an attacker when you can't even bring yourself to attack."

"Fouling is against the rules," Mei protested. "And I don't have to get myself airboxed to be a striker."

"Not good enough," Artegor replied, sounding almost amused. "After all, _Sinedd _manages to take down our enemies without getting caught – surely you should know that?"

The image of Sinedd and his displace of false innocence, his hands raised for the cameras, swam before her in her mind's eye. Her hand curled, unbidden, into a fist.

Jaw clenched, unconvincingly, she gave her response. "Because it's wrong."

"Morality is the excuse that the weak use to justify their failures," Artegor stated, dismissively. "You have to be willing to do _everything _you need to do in order to win."

"But-"

"_Everything."_

"Okay, okay," she said, adopting the tone she used to use whenever her mother tried to push her into modelling gigs (that was one good thing about living underground – her mother's nagging calls never seemed to get through). She just wanted to leave and hit the showers.

Artegor moved forward suddenly and grabbed her wrists, squeezing so tightly that Mei knew she would soon be marked by bruises. Tears formed in her eyes – whether from the pain or from the shock, she did not know.

"This is the power of the Smog," he said and she could see it know, even with her vision blurred by tears. Dark smoke surrounding him, engulfing him – the white of his teeth, bared in the widest grin she had ever seen, the only light she could find. She was so close she was practically choking on the stuff, the black tendrils filling her lungs like second hand smoke. She could feel the toxicity of it as it coursed through her veins and yet she could also feel the power.

She just stared now, not in defiance, but in paralysis. She would fall to the ground if only she could move.

"Didn't you ever want the power to take Sinedd down a notch? Don't you just wish you could make me let go of your wrists?"

He's speaking but it's like the voice is coming from no-where, more distant than his pronouncements from up on high. She saw her own reflection in the seemingly infinite lenses of his sunglasses and she found herself hating the picture of weakness she saw there.

"Yes." The hunger in her voice surprised even her.

The Smog descended, swirling back until even the faintest wisps were gone. Artegor released his grasp on Mei's hands, casually.

"You can go now."

She got back to her room to find Sinedd lounging on her bed.

"Get out of my room!" It had been bad enough when Micro-ice had pulled this kind of thing back with the Snow Kids but at least he had been relatively harmless.

"So, did you enjoy your alone time with Coach?" Sinedd said, his eyes falling upon Mei's reddened wrists.

She tried to keep her face as blank as possible. "You should watch your back, Sinedd, he's training me to take your place. I don't think you'll like defence much – not as many girls to push."

She wasn't sure where the words were coming from but she felt good saying them, imagining Sinedd coming up against Micro-ice and D'jok and them unleashing their rage upon him for daring to steal away the girl of their pathetic little dreams. She wouldn't be too sorry if the lot of them got removed from the pitch for fighting.

Sinedd gave a faint laugh. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"You can watch me from the substitute's bench," Mei shot back, the rhythm of the insults flowing through her almost like the Smog she'd felt earlier.

Sinedd got up off the bed and passed by her, uncomfortably close. "See you on the pitch tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes at his eternal need to have the last word. The door slid shut behind him. She tried to sleep but couldn't; she felt too shaken, too alive…

* * *

The next day on the pitch she shoved Sinedd so hard his nose bled from the impact with the ground.

"Good job, Mei." She held her head high at the praise, shaking out her long cascade of hair in a way that she knew made her look particularly beautiful and triumphant. "Sinedd, get up for heaven's sake."

The irritation in his voice was like music to her ears.

"Told you so," she said to Sinedd, echoing his own words back to her just to rub it in his face a little more. He snarled at her but did nothing else yet.

* * *

Not long after, she got the Smog and she used it to appear out of no-where and trip Sinedd from behind. She had taken that one from his play-book too.

But the feeling of satisfaction she got from beating him at his own game was nothing compared to the rush as the Smog in her veins, as potent as she had remembered and now it was hers, all hers.

"Congratulations, Mei." Artegor said. "I guess you belong on this team after all."

* * *

She had bruises after the next session when Sinedd pushed her into Fulmungus, her head bashing into her team-mate's bony shoulder, the both of them crashing to the ground.

"Try that one on Micro-ice and D'jok next time we see them," Artegor said, approval in her voice.

It stung Mei more than the actual injury and she vowed to get him back, already feeling the Smog rattling inside of her, ready to let loose.

* * *

She stood outside the office Artegor had on Genesis Stadium and rung the buzzer. She waited outside for what felt like forever before Artegor told her to come in, just as she was thinking of turning tail and leaving.

She walked in and sat in the chair opposite his. "I think I should play attack in the next match against the Cyclopes." She'd been playing defence for all their matches so far – Artegor telling her (in a voice that was so faux-soothing that it was practically designed to irritate her) that she needed to get used to playing with the Shadows in a familiar position.

He seemed to have been expecting this, how could he not with her complaining about it down the ear-piece every time she had a chance? "And why do you think that?"

"Because I will do whatever it takes to win," she answered, not flinching.

Artegor pretended to mull it over, like he hadn't already made his decision. "I suppose I could move you down to offence. After all, you and Sinedd do work _so _well together."

The urge to trash talk Sinedd was strong in her but she wasn't sure she was on safe enough ground for that now – he was the star striker for now and she was as of yet unproven.

"I won't let you down, coach." It's what she would have said to Aarch but somehow she meant it more when she said it now.

"See that you don't."

Mei knew that that was her cue to leave but she found herself wanting to stay, wanting to know more about the coach they barely ever saw. Shaking the impulse, she rose out of her seat and left without a word.

* * *

The match came and she could barely concentrate on her Cyclopes opponents; this match was between her and Sinedd. There was no way they were going to lose anyways they had the Smog on their side, the Cyclopes' pathetic flux was no match for it.

As they danced, the dance that had always looked goofy from the outsider's perspective, she felt the rush the Shadow's combined Smog and she felt the power rush through her like an incredible charge. She wondered what it would be like if Artegor had joined them on the field, added his Smog to theirs (to hers), how much more powerful it would be.

They won 5-3 in the end, even with the Cyclopes' attempt at cheating. Apparently Aarch had found the attempt to trick the entire galaxy and had put a stop to it - you had to admit the hilarity of that (though she wasn't sure Artegor would see it that way).

She supposed she should have been annoyed that she hadn't had the chance to score yet more goals. But it didn't really matter, she had won the victory that actually mattered 3-2.

* * *

She strode into Artegor's office, not waiting for permission to enter this time.

"Excellent performance in the match today," he said, his face ablaze with zeal. "But we are going to have to redouble our efforts if we are going defeat Aarch and your former team-mates." The word Aarch was spat with more venom than usual, if that were even possible - proving a weakness she had suspected for quite a while. She made a mental note of it for later; it wasn't what she was here for now.

"I will." She stepped around the desk, quickly as she could, breaching the gap between them for the first time since that day when he'd held her wrists on the pitch. Deliberately, she placed her hands on his face before pulling his dark glasses off – revealing pale eyes too weak to withstand the assault of even the dimmest light.

"What are you doing?" He sounded as she had never heard him sound before – caught off guard, almost anxious.

"I'm doing everything," Mei said and she kissed him, letting him taste the smirk on her lips.

'_I win,' _she thought.

**That's it for this fic. I can't believe that this is actually the first thing that I have uploaded to this site in 2014 (though I have like a million fics mouldering away in my drafts folder), time has passed so quickly. I think that all my energy went into my dissertation and left none left for fanfiction but hopefully now I can get back to writing more. **

**When I first got the prompt for this pairing, I wasn't sure I would be able to do it but I got really into writing this fic (although I'm not sure how well it turned out), it was especially fun to write Sinedd and Mei fighting over Artegor's praises. So I hope that you like it, Tijananazdravec! **

**Please review, I'd love feedback on this one!**


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